Promise
by SyaotheMage
Summary: As his wrinkles increase one by one, she dreads the day in which she'll have to fulfill her promise.


I've been wanting to write something for Durarara! for a while now and despite how hard I've tried, I haven't gotten any really good ideas. Eventually I did stumble across a song titled "_Wrinkle_" which pretty much inspired this. Now the song is actually being sung by GUMI, but it's pretty deep and has a lot of emotion in it and the lyrics are really touching.

I was going to write something using this song with my OCs, but then I thought of Celty and Shinra and deemed them a better fit for this. It's not perfection and I don't see this as quality, but I'm satisfied with it. I really hope someone out there likes this story and checks out the song. I'll also apologize right now if this is really bad.

Durarara! is by Ryohgo Narita.

The song that inspired this fanfiction, "_Wrinkle_", is by buzzG.

* * *

"Celty, you have a beautiful smile."

The PDA fell from the dullahan's hands as she heard the compliment. Thick, black smoke poured from her neck and fogged up the room, a telltale sign that she was embarrassed. Quickly bending down to snatch the phone up, she frantically typed up a message and shoved the device into the doctor's face.

**[What are you talking about?]**

Shinra chuckled, lowering the hand that grasped the cellphone so he could see her.

"I'm not exactly talking about a literal sense. Some don't need a mouth to smile and smile with their eyes instead. Considering you don't have either, all I really have to rely on is the rest of you or the smoke." Shinra closed the PDA and allowed Celty to see the soft, caring smile he always wore when he was with her. "Maybe I'm talking about your body language, but you know I can tell how you're feeling without even asking. I guess we can say I'm capable of reading your emotions. Either way, you don't need a face for me to know when you're smiling."

Celty pulled her phone away from the doctor, giving some thought before erasing what she previously wrote and tapping upon the keys some more.

**[What suddenly brought this on?]**

"Just a thought." Shinra turned his head some to muse to himself, hearing the familiar tap of the dullahan's fingers against the keyboard of her PDA. He didn't need to see to know what she was going to ask and chose to ignore the message when it was held up for him to read. Instead he only replied with an "It's nothing," before giving her one of those big, doofy smiles of his.

The situation would soon go to the back of her mind. Months, maybe it had been years. Celty would lock the memory away until finally she found herself being presented a sparkling size nine purchased from Isetan. Having already known her answer for longest time, Shinra would slip it on to her finger and while she was still in her flustered haze, he would smile.

"It really suits you."

Soon enough, the dullahan calmed down, smoke still billowing profusely from her neck as she twisted the ring around on her finger. Celty's shoulders raised and lowered as if giving a content sigh. There it was, the "smile" Shinra loved.

"Celty?" The doctor pushed up his glasses some as she turned to face him, a sign that he had her attention. "Will you make me a promise?" A moment of silence followed this question before Celty reached into her biker suit, pulling out her PDA and typing out her thoughts.

**[Sure. I thought marriage was the promise.]**

"No, no. It's a different promise." Shinra chuckled softly as his gaze drifted downwards to his own feet. "We've known each other for so long, but I'm the only one who gets older. I want to, but I can't be with you forever."

**[I know that. What are you trying to say?]**

"When I die, please smile."

The phone made contact with the ground making it apparent that Celty was shocked by the request. Why smiling? How was she supposed to 'smile' as she watched him die? Scrambling to pick up the device, another message was readied for the doctor.

**[How do you expect me to smile?]** The PDA was pulled away and the message was replaced. **[You want me to be happy that you're dying?]**

Reading the last message, Shinra gave a heavy sigh, pulling Celty into his arms.

"It's not that. You should be sad that I'm dying!" Feeling her shoulders slump and her arms wrap around him, he began rubbing her back to comfort her. "Just let your smile be the last thing I see."

Oh yes, Celty would remember these moments now, more vividly than ever before. Time almost seemed to fly as if it had been nothing. Everyone around her would grow older and older, leaving her behind. As time went on she would became a wife, a partner, and a best friend and although she never let Shinra know, it hurt her to see his wrinkles slowly increase.

One by one.

It seemed as if each day he got a new one and Celty had begun to read it as a sign that their time together was almost up. Soon Shinra would grow weak, unable to care for himself anymore. He would become bedridden and although he was a doctor, he only labeled what had been happening to him as nothing more than 'natural causes.'Normally that diagnosis was used on the deceased. No person would say they were suffering for natural causes. The term was too closely associated with death. If he had known it would frighten her to hear those words, he would never have said them. However, he never stopped babbling nonsense to counter it and to be honest, Celty loved it.

Hearing his voice, no matter how weak it was now was just a sign that he was alive.

Yet now the voice was growing fainter, hoarser, and even weaker than before.

"I always thought the strength of our love would keep me awake longer." Shinra was babbling again. Had he been much younger and healthier, he would have found Celty's hands jabbing him in the stomach. Those days were long gone now, instead her hands were grasping one of his which had been laying limp beside him.

Turning his head some to look at her weakened muscles moved under the aged, wrinkled skin as he let his lips curl into a soft smile. Shinra's eyes had yet to water as he gazed at her now trembling frame. Celty didn't need a head for the doctor to know that right now, she was crying just like a child. However, as she gave his hand a squeeze, he saw it.

Over the years as his wrinkles increased one by one, she remembered. Shinra felt the sting in his eyes as several tears slipped out, not out of sadness, but out of joy as he felt everything start to grow dark around him.

"Celty, you have a beautiful smile."


End file.
